


Duck tape doesn't fix it all

by AveryTheTitaniumLady



Series: Friends fix more than duck tape [1]
Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bad Thoughts, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Bullying, Flash is awful in this, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I'm Bad At Tagging, Just mild though, Peter Parker Angst, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Pre-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sad, Suicidal Peter Parker, Suicidal Thoughts, nothing graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 02:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16525175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AveryTheTitaniumLady/pseuds/AveryTheTitaniumLady
Summary: It had been a bad day for Peter Parker. The worst kind of bad day.





	Duck tape doesn't fix it all

**Author's Note:**

  * For [delightfulmania](https://archiveofourown.org/users/delightfulmania/gifts).



> Here is some angst for you, though it has a happy ending cus I can't write pure angst <3

Peter Parker pre-radioactive spider bite was a shy, geeky nerd. He was short, and weak, and super smart, and spent his free time doing extra credit work or building Lego. Now, that was no reason for Flash to bully him, to beat him up and belittle him. However, those were the reasons Flash used to justify his actions, the words Flash threw at him the same way he threw dodgeballs. It was okay though, because Peter would rather have these insults thrown his way than hurled at Ned, or anyone else who Flash thought deserved it. Better to keep his attention on Peter. Peter Parker pre-his friendship with Ned was a lonely, shy, geeky nerd who got bullied worse than he did after Ned came along, because at least then Flash couldn't taunt him about how his only friends we're his aunt and uncle. At this point in time, his aunt May and uncle Ben were his only friends. He didn't even have parents. That was one of Flash's favourite attacks. That his parents had died, were dead, had left him.

“Poor Penis Parker, even his parents didn't love him enough to stay.”

God, Peter hated flash. He hated being attacked just for being him. He hated having to explain to May why he had a black eye, why his ribs were bruised, why his knees were scrapped up. Hated having to secretly wash the blood out of his clothes, having glasses held together only with tape, having to buy new notebooks every week. And he hated it even more when they didn't have enough money to buy new notebooks. When those had to be held together with tape, too.

Peter knew that him and May and Ben weren't the most well-off, but it was in these moments that it struck him so obviously that they were poor. The days when he walked into school without anything in his stomach and only an apple for lunch, his glasses taped in 3 spots, his clothes with faint but noticeable blood stains, and his notebooks made more of duct tape than of paper. Those were the days that the teachers looked at him with badly disguised pity, his peers looked at him with blatant disgust, and Flash held off on the physical violence even though his verbal abuse was worse than usual. It was on days like this that Peter felt the worst. That his brain shouted at him as much as Flash did, that his nails dug into his skin. These were that days that he contemplated whether it was worth it, whether he was worth it. Without having to pay for him, for his clothes, his food, his notebook, his _everything_ , Aunt May and Uncle Ben would have so much more money. They would be able to eat breakfast and take full lunches and have date night more often than their anniversary. On days like these Peter wouldn't fight back against or ignore Flash. On days like this Peter would listen to every word, and then look out the window at how tall all the buildings in New York were and contemplate whether or not, whether or not, whether or not…

It had been a bad day. The worst kind of bad day. There had been no food in the house, both May and Ben were working double shifts, Peter had three assignments due and a test, his notebooks had finally been ripped beyond repair, the tape holding his glasses together had stopped sticking, and to top it off it was pouring rain. On his way to school Peter missed the train, gave his only granola bar to a homeless man, slipped in the mud, and had to run to school in the rain without an umbrella. He got halfway there without another incident, but he still had a good 10 minute run ahead of him and only 5 minutes until class. Yesterday, his teacher had told him that if he was late one more time he'd get detention after school everyday for a month. And so Peter stopped running. He looked around at all of the people bustling along, at the cars honking in the roads, and remarked that none of them cared who he was. They didn't care why he was running, where he was going, what he was doing. _No one_ cared. Flash's voice echoed through his head, “...even his parents didn't love him enough to stay”. With that thought going through his head, Peter looked up, found the tallest building nearby, and headed towards it.

Or, that's what Peter planned to do. Instead, he turned around and ran smack-dab into someone. Starting to apologize, Peter looked up into the eyes of the guy he'd ran into, and found himself face to face with Bruce Banner. Bruce Banner, his science idol (second only to Tony Stark). Dr. Banner took one look at him, in his soaking wet second hand clothes, starstruck expression, and black eye, and asked him if he wanted to get a coffee. What!?

Dr. Banner took Peter into the cafe adjacent to where they had been standing, explaining that he had gone out for a walk only to get stuck in the rain, and could really go for a nice big cup of coffee. Peter didn't quite believe the story, and assumed he'd fudged some bits to make Peter feel better, but he was meeting Dr. “Call me Bruce” Banner so Peter didn't really care. He did call him Bruce though, and miraculously didn't spontaneously combust.

Bruce (ohmygod) asked him how he was doing, how school was going, did he like his classes, and somehow didn't ask why he was running through the streets of Queens in the rain or why he had a black eye. Peter asked him questions about his dissertations, about gamma rays, and about physics, and Dr. Ban- Bruce seemed surprised at how much he knew, was impressed with his nerdiness.

They talked in that cafe for a little over an hour, until the rain had stopped and Bruce said he had to get going. Peter was a bit sad, but it was kind of hard to be sad when you just got to talk to Dr. Robert Bruce Banner for an hour. And it was only fitting that when Peter left the cafe and headed to school, a giant double rainbow was spread across the sky.

It had been a bad day. The worst kind of bad day. So awful of a bad day that Peter had almost made a horrible, irreversible decision. But for once in his life, the Parker Luck had actually been lucky. So now whenever Peter is having a bad day, all he has to do is remember that he impressed Bruce Banner, that Bruce Banner thought being nerdy was cool, and nothing the world threw at him could bring him down.


End file.
